Confession Based on Luke 9

Leader:

God, you gave us your spirit

And you told us to go and heal a hurting world,

But the magnitude of our own needs overcame us

And your spirit felt like a tiny, insignificant flame.

People:  Rekindle your flame in us, God.

Leader:

God, you gave us your strength

And you told us to spread your love,

But our own desires to be great overcome us,

And in our pride and arrogance, we tried to snuff

The flame of your love.

People:  Rekindle your flame in us, God.

Leader:

God, you gave us your grace

And we argued about who deserved it more.

You gave us grace—our cups overflowed—

But in our anxiety to grasp what is ours

We complained of all we lacked and begged for more.

People:  Rekindle your flame in us, God.

Leader:

Jesus, filled with our own importance and the significance of our calling,

We sought justice for our enemies and shunned the simplicity of your love.

Then you opened your arms to children, and reminded us of our calling:

To love fully, to welcome everyone in your name, to heal the brokenhearted.

People:  Rekindle your flame in us, God.

--klc

Corporate Prayer: We Are Part of Your Story

This is a corporate prayer I wrote for our first Sunday in the gospel of Luke.  I felt intrigued by the controversy over the recipient of Luke's letter.  Was Theophilus a specific person, an official of high rank?  Or are we all Theophilus--in Greek--'lover of God'--and therefore all the intended audience for Luke's letter?  I like to think that even now I am reading a letter written to me.

It is this reflection that prompted the Story theme of our worship.  We are all part of the ongoing story of Jesus' life.  We are all part of the amazing, paradoxical wonder that Luke records.  But sometimes, if you're like me, I question my significance in the Story, and when I stop there, in that place of complacency and discouragement, my sense of purpose and vocation wanes.

 We will follow this confessional with a beautiful, somewhat lost hymn, "I Need Thee Every Hour."  If you have not looked at this hymn in a while, do!  It is a tender prayer that first affirms God's presence with us, then insists upon it in pain or sorrow, then celebrates the active, dynamic presence in us.

   Reader:  God, we are part of the same story that Luke wrote so long ago.  But sometimes we feel that we are insignificant.

     People:  Help us to trust that even the smallest acts of goodness and courage are not lost.

Reader:  God, we are part of your story, but sometimes, in times of doubt, need, and sorrow, we forget to think of you.

     People:  Forgive us.  Have mercy on us when we forget to tell your story to our children and our friends, by word or deed.

Reader:  Forgive us when we lose our courage, when we try to wrest our lives from you and rewrite them after our own desires.

     People: Forgive us when, in our longing for happy endings and easy resolutions, we scorn your gentle, scarred hands.

Reader:  Help us to think of your faithful servants, of Mary, who when she heard of this mysterious and frightening plot twist—that she, a virgin, would bear a child—did not ask for her story to be rewritten, but sang this song of gratitude:

     People:  The Almighty has done great things for me. Holy is his name,

and his faithful love extends age after age to those who fear him.

Reader:  He has used the power of his arm, he has routed the arrogant of heart.

     People:  He has pulled down princes from their thrones and raised high the lowly.

He has filled the starving with good things, sent the rich away empty.

Keep Speaking

road from Raab Park, Poulsbo

God I saw you today
in the man at the park
walking in the rain
beside his black dog.
I heard you when he said
Her and I gained some weight last holiday
and I laughed and answered, It's easy to do.

Too I saw you in the woman
throwing an old tennis ball
for her dog, when she laughed
with joy as he bounded after it.

I knew you in the quiet of the gnarled apple trees
glistening in gathering evening;
I pulled off my hood and the cold rain wet my hair
and I think that was you, too.

I heard your voice as I walked past my neighbor's house
Telling me to knock on her door
but there were others waiting for me at home
so I walked on by.  Still,

keep speaking, God.  

--klc
 

Prayer: We Have Come From a Hundred Places

Olympic National Park, courtesy Ken Cockroft

 __God, here we are.  We have come from a hundred places, from the dark places in our soul where we wander alone, from the shadowed caves of our longing.  We have come here from the crowded, noisy city streets where voices clamor for our attention and demand our allegiance.  We have come here from the angry alleyways, where violence and injustice are allowed to happen, where the helpless are violated, where their cries for mercy echo in sudden silence.

And so our voices often seem to be swallowed in silence.  We wonder where you are, Jesus, friend of the poor, protector of the weak.  

__We have come here from a hundred places, because you have promised us we will never be alone.  We doubt, but where else can we go?  You have the words of life.  Sometimes we see your love and it is like the sound of the rushing of the water, they watching light that floods over the ocean at sunrise.  You call us from our places of doubt and sorrow, call to us with a shout: Come!  Come, you who are weary, and I will give you rest!*

__Come, those of you who thirst, come to the living water.  Are you hungry?  Come, you who have no money, and eat of my bread.*

So we must climb to our feet and walk on to meet you.  The way is long but travel with you is sweet.  We raise our faces to you, feeling your love like waterfall spray.  We find quiet places to sit among hidden flowers.  We see the sky passing above our heads and hear the call of birds.  We walk on, we run, to take hold of the hope offered to us.  We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. 

__Shout with joy to God, all the earth!  Sing the glory of his name, make his praise glorious!  Say to God, How awesome are your deeds!  All the earth bows down to you; they sing praise to you, they sing praise to your name.  Come and see what God has done, how awesome his works in our behalf!**

--klc

*Isaiah 55:1

**Psalm 66:1-5

Prayer of Confession: In a Suffering World, We'd Rather Choose Another Road

Path to Foul Weather Bluff; Kingston, WA

Gentle God, song of our heart, where are you in our suffering world?  You shaped us with your hands, and while the dirt was still under your fingernails, we turned from you and hid ourselves.  And now it seems, in the darkest places where the helpless suffer, you are hiding from us. 

In the noise of our world, we have listened to the other voices.  We have heard the voices calling us to easier paths.  When you called us to choose comfort or follow you, we have decided that we are better alone.

Lamb of God, have mercy on us.

We have shouted our needs and drowned out your voice.  We have not waited for your answer.  We have run our own way until we stumbled, and only then, our clothes tattered and our hearts drained of hope, did we come back to you.

Lamb of God, have mercy on us.

The noise of the world has become too much for us, O God.  Injustice roars and the helpless scream.  In the tumult we scorn your gentle voice.  We have decided you are not worthy of our trust.

Lamb of God, have mercy on us.   

Even as we travel this road, we begin to stumble under the weight of baggage: suitcases packed with bitterness and anger, bags overflowing with surprising prejudice and hatred, shoes full of stones of disappointment that rub our feet raw and slow our steps.  We travel heavy, O God.  Forgive us and take our burdens so that, like children, we may skip light and full of joy.

Lamb of God, give us your peace.


--klc; photo: Meredith Cockroft